In this conceptual article, we draw upon the literature regarding cognitive and behavioural factors that underpin childhood anxiety to outline how a range of these risk markers might be targeted through adventurous play. When children play in an adventurous way, climbing trees, riding their bikes fast downhill and jumping from rocks, they experience feelings of fear and excitement, thrill and adrenaline. We propose that the positive, thrilling and playful emotions associated with this type of child-led play facilitate exposure to fear-provoking situations and, in doing so, provide opportunities for children to learn about physiological arousal, uncertainty and coping. We hypothesise that these learning opportunities will, over time, reduce children’s risk for elevated anxiety by increasing children’s expectations and ability to cope with anxiety, decreasing intolerance of uncertainty and preventing catastrophic misinterpretations of physiological arousal. If our conceptual model is correct, then ensuring that children have the physical and psychological space required to play in an adventurous way may help to decrease their risk for elevated or clinical anxiety.

在这篇概念性文章中，我们借鉴了有关导致儿童焦虑的认知和行为因素的文献，概述了如何通过冒险游戏来瞄准这些风险标记。当孩子们以冒险的方式玩耍时，爬树、骑自行车快速下坡、从岩石上跳下，他们会体验到恐惧和兴奋、刺激和肾上腺素飙升的感觉。我们认为，与这种由儿童主导的游戏相关的积极、刺激和有趣的情绪有助于暴露于引发恐惧的情况，并在此过程中为儿童提供了解生理唤醒、不确定性和应对的机会。我们假设，随着时间的推移，这些学习机会将通过提高儿童的期望和应对焦虑的能力、减少对不确定性的不容忍并防止对生理唤醒的灾难性误解来降低儿童焦虑加剧的风险。如果我们的概念模型是正确的，那么确保孩子们拥有以冒险的方式玩耍所需的身体和心理空间可能有助于降低他们升高或临床焦虑的风险。